Barron's AP Physics B with CD-ROM (Barron's AP Physics B (W/CD))

 (6 customer reviews)

Barrons is usually pretty good with test prep, but this book did not reflect that. I was honestly disappointed with this book. There were a lot of errors, and it confused me even more, especially since AP Physics is already difficult as it is. Not to mention, Barrons isn't exactly the easiest to read prep book since it's written in textbook format. I liked their concept explanations for the most part though; I understood them only because I was taking the class at the same time. It would've been hard to self-study with this book.

The questions themselves, though, are pretty good for practice, since they tend to be harder than the actual exam. However, some of the questions aren't really reflective of the AP exam. I really wish they had proofread the solutions and answer explanations better though. I used this book to study with a group of friends, and we ended up correcting a lot of the problems. We also asked our teacher for help, and he did confirm that we were right and...Read more

I'm a tutor who just got this book to brush up a little, since I hadn't tutored AP physics in a while and I'm working with a student who's pretty sharp. This book is a joke, though, in terms of just how few a pages of content there are; overall about a third the thickness of Barron's AP Chem book, which I also have (and like). This thing is so brief, it's like reading Cliffs Notes of Cliffs Notes -- it's barely an overview of the subjects. For example, I just tried to go in and review electrostatics before an appointment, and electric potential has exactly one page. Are you kidding me? There are multiple equations on the AP equation sheet for potential, yet the book doesn't even mention half of them. And this is like the fourth topic I've looked up and found way too little explanation of.

The text part of the book is excellent. Ofter it details a problem solved with a unique visual solutions. I am using a much older version of the book and it is also full of errors on the actual test sections. I was so frustrated that I wanted to purchase a new edition hoping that this problem was corrected. Based on other reviews, I'll stick to this book for supplement to text only. I like Schaums Outline of College Physics, which is also non-calculus based. So far, the books have approached problems differently which one may appreciate based on your learning style.